00:00Kelly.
00:01Mr. Obadol, last week Secretary Driscoll and General George sent a letter to the Army on
00:09the New Army Transformation Initiative to implement Secretary Hegseth's directive.
00:14This directive emphasized that the Army must prioritize investments and existing resources
00:19to improve electronic warfare capabilities, among other things.
00:23And to this point, at least I agree, we need to be doing everything we can to prepare our
00:29military for a potential next fight, and electronic warfare is a critical part of that.
00:35That's why I'm concerned that the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, ATEC, may have
00:41a RIF plan that would disproportionately impact certain critical test centers and result in
00:47long-term consequences for testing and evaluation and also readiness.
00:53ATEC provides critical test and evaluation capabilities to the U.S. Army and plays a crucial role in
00:58informing Army senior leaders.
01:01Historically, ATEC has been committed to ensuring test and evaluation occurs across varied climates
01:07and unique geographies, from the Arctic Regions Test Center to the Tropic Regions Test Center
01:14and Yuma Test Center, which provides extreme weather testing in a realistic environment.
01:20In addition, the Electronic Proving Ground at Fort Huachuca provides an invaluable asset with its
01:29interference-free environment and ability to execute developmental testing due to its very
01:36unique geography.
01:39So Mr. Obadal, if confirmed as the Under Secretary of the Army, you will have a critical role in executing
01:46the new Army Transformation Initiative.
01:49How will you ensure the Army prepares for future advanced electronic warfare threats?
01:56Senator, thank you for the question.
02:00And I would like to acknowledge the critical services that ATEC and the number of facilities
02:06around the country, including Huachuca and Yuma, that it maintains.
02:13I think as we have seen now, we have the strategic direction from the Secretary of Defense and
02:18the Secretary of the Army for the Army Transformation Initiative.
02:21And it is the coming months and couple of years of the second level of detail of how do we streamline
02:27our organizations to ensure that we are providing the best equipment to our soldiers.
02:34Testing that equipment can take place in a number of different ways.
02:38ATEC certainly is one of those, as well as testing in the Transformation in Contact brigades
02:45that have been, by all accounts, successful over the last couple of years.
02:50But if confirmed...
02:51Can you elaborate on that?
02:54Is the Army doing developmental testing in operational units?
02:59So, Senator, the Transformation in Contact essentially is bringing capabilities at a smaller scale
03:07to brigade and level or brigade and below level organizations and allowing soldiers to experiment
03:16with this on training centers and on maneuvers at their home bases.
03:21And then giving that feedback and that cycle right back to the innovators so they can go back
03:26and change these capabilities and give that feedback directly to the senior leadership of the Army
03:31as they make decisions on what to do.
03:33Typically, in my experience in the Navy is that's sort of operational testing.
03:38You put it out there to a, you know, real unit, but something that's more further developed
03:45than a developmental test process, which what ATEC does.
03:49So do you agree that disproportionately slashing our electronic warfare test centers would harm
03:56the Army's electronic warfare capabilities?
03:58Well, Senator, I don't have enough information to make an assessment on that.
04:04If confirmed, I would commit to pulling together the right data and the right experts and be
04:10able to advise the secretary.
04:12Okay, so this is my view on this.
04:17This is not an area where we can afford to make a mistake here.
04:20So if the Army does make a decision to riff a highly specialized civilian workforce in remote
04:26locations, it's not going to be easy to reverse course on this.
04:31So if you're confirmed, I encourage you to take a very close look and consider how this
04:39would ultimately or could impact the warfighter in the kind of combat equipment they get.
04:47And to make sure that we don't, you know, make a mistake that's kind of hard to reverse.
04:52Yes.
04:53You have my absolute commitment to that, Senator.
04:55All right.
